Metric Century used to be called 62 miles
06-06-18, 01:06 PM
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Fahrenheit is meaningless. I can tell you right away that 20 degrees C is warm, or, at the very least, not too cold, without knowing very little about C. What is 20 in F? Who knows, zero in F is a temperature of "mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride" - how often do you deal with this mixture and what practical information it gives?
I agree makes more sense engineering, but the scale works dang good for weather temperatures experienced across most of the industralized northern hemisphere. Why is C more practical when I spend the months of December to March largely sticking a negative in front of my average Michigan temperatures? I'm possibly taking a ethno-geographically centric view, but a range of 0 to 100F simply makes more sense than a range of -20 to 40C
06-06-18, 01:18 PM
#52
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edit:
Apparently, with Si it's ok to use prefixes other than those representing multiplication or division by 1000. So, cm^3 is ok. For some reason, I was thinking that only k,m, etc were ok.
Last edited by desconhecido; 06-06-18 at 01:29 PM.
06-06-18, 01:30 PM
#53
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Now, from the POV of the real overwhelming majority of the population (unlike USA-only majority of the population), Fahrenheit temperature scale is completely meaningless and by far the most confusing part of USA measuring system. First of all, unlike any other measure, there is simply no easy way to convert C to F by just applying one multiplication, there is a whole conversion formula involved. Second, Celsius temperature scale is extremely intuitive and practical: 0 - water freezing point. Everything below 0 means freezing cold. And in practice it makes a big difference between ice, snow, exploded water pipes, frozen food vs just rain, cold water, cold food. And at 100 degrees water is boiling which is also a common event known to everyone. It is pretty easy to extrapolate between these two points (0 & 100) by everyday life experience.
Fahrenheit is meaningless. I can tell you right away that 20 degrees C is warm, or, at the very least, not too cold, without knowing very little about C. What is 20 in F? Who knows, zero in F is a temperature of "mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride" - how often do you deal with this mixture and what practical information it gives? Never and none - and this includes US folks as well. 100 degrees, AFAIR, was a body temperature of his feverish wife. How often do you meet with Fahrenheit's wife? Above 32 will be warm range, below 32 - frozen... Why?!! Why 32??? Crazy and broken by design system, dead everywhere in the world - except US.
Fahrenheit is meaningless. I can tell you right away that 20 degrees C is warm, or, at the very least, not too cold, without knowing very little about C. What is 20 in F? Who knows, zero in F is a temperature of "mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride" - how often do you deal with this mixture and what practical information it gives? Never and none - and this includes US folks as well. 100 degrees, AFAIR, was a body temperature of his feverish wife. How often do you meet with Fahrenheit's wife? Above 32 will be warm range, below 32 - frozen... Why?!! Why 32??? Crazy and broken by design system, dead everywhere in the world - except US.
I can tell you exactly what 20F is, ten degrees below zero. I even know that zero is actually 32F - what it feels like etc... I can negotiate the system to a very nuanced degree. It's not right or wrong, just what you are exposed to during a formative phase.
06-06-18, 01:42 PM
#54
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This is a chicken and the egg thing.
Because as we all very well know, anything important in cycling came first from Europe. They had the Century.... it was 100KM, and we thought it was great. Then we started saying, well we're Americans and we can one up you. We'll make our own Century, and because we're awesome and use the Imperial system, we'll do it 1/2 again more and make it 100 miles. At that point, the old "Century", which was only 62mi became known as a "62-miler [mile-er]". Well, that just started to sound a bit odd after a while, so at some point when cycling started to really get big here in the US of A someone said "we can't be calling this a 62-miler, this is cycling, and everything is Metric!! We MUST have a metric name for this distance!!"
And thus the "Metric Century" was born.
Because as we all very well know, anything important in cycling came first from Europe. They had the Century.... it was 100KM, and we thought it was great. Then we started saying, well we're Americans and we can one up you. We'll make our own Century, and because we're awesome and use the Imperial system, we'll do it 1/2 again more and make it 100 miles. At that point, the old "Century", which was only 62mi became known as a "62-miler [mile-er]". Well, that just started to sound a bit odd after a while, so at some point when cycling started to really get big here in the US of A someone said "we can't be calling this a 62-miler, this is cycling, and everything is Metric!! We MUST have a metric name for this distance!!"
And thus the "Metric Century" was born.
06-06-18, 02:00 PM
#55
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Half is pretty aggressive.
Maybe some tips/lessons learned here...
https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...r-century.html
-Tim-
Maybe some tips/lessons learned here...
https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...r-century.html
-Tim-
06-06-18, 02:04 PM
#56
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Origin of the Metric System
Most historians agree that Gabriel Mouton, the vicar of St. Paul’s Church in Lyons, France, is the “founding father” of the metric system. He proposed a decimal system of measurement in 1670. Mouton based it on the length of one minute of arc of a great circle of the Earth (now called a nautical mile, 1852 meters). He also proposed the swing-length of a pendulum with a frequency of one beat per second as the unit of length (about 25 cm). A pendulum beating with this length would have been fairly easy to produce, thus facilitating the widespread distribution of uniform standards. Over the years, his work was revised, improved, and extended by a number of French scientists.
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06-06-18, 02:23 PM
#57
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Now, from the POV of the real overwhelming majority of the population (unlike USA-only majority of the population), Fahrenheit temperature scale is completely meaningless and by far the most confusing part of USA measuring system. First of all, unlike any other measure, there is simply no easy way to convert C to F by just applying one multiplication, there is a whole conversion formula involved. Second, Celsius temperature scale is extremely intuitive and practical: 0 - water freezing point. Everything below 0 means freezing cold. And in practice it makes a big difference between ice, snow, exploded water pipes, frozen food vs just rain, cold water, cold food. And at 100 degrees water is boiling which is also a common event known to everyone. It is pretty easy to extrapolate between these two points (0 & 100) by everyday life experience.
Fahrenheit is meaningless. I can tell you right away that 20 degrees C is warm, or, at the very least, not too cold, without knowing very little about C. What is 20 in F? Who knows, zero in F is a temperature of "mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride" - how often do you deal with this mixture and what practical information it gives? Never and none - and this includes US folks as well. 100 degrees, AFAIR, was a body temperature of his feverish wife. How often do you meet with Fahrenheit's wife? Above 32 will be warm range, below 32 - frozen... Why?!! Why 32??? Crazy and broken by design system, dead everywhere in the world - except US.
Fahrenheit is meaningless. I can tell you right away that 20 degrees C is warm, or, at the very least, not too cold, without knowing very little about C. What is 20 in F? Who knows, zero in F is a temperature of "mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride" - how often do you deal with this mixture and what practical information it gives? Never and none - and this includes US folks as well. 100 degrees, AFAIR, was a body temperature of his feverish wife. How often do you meet with Fahrenheit's wife? Above 32 will be warm range, below 32 - frozen... Why?!! Why 32??? Crazy and broken by design system, dead everywhere in the world - except US.
The reason for the ice, water, and ammonium chloride bath is that it is thermostable -- something very handy when you are trying to establish references for a scale, with the technology available hundreds of years ago.
And if we were to use the Celsius scale as he wanted it, 0 would be the boiling point of water and 100 the freezing point. Well, okay.
06-06-18, 02:59 PM
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06-06-18, 08:39 PM
#60
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Half is pretty aggressive.
Maybe some tips/lessons learned here...
https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...r-century.html
-Tim-
Maybe some tips/lessons learned here...
https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...r-century.html
-Tim-
06-06-18, 08:46 PM
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What I remember in the past is that the "century" and "half century" ride were the main things. I don't recall ever seeing a "metric century" until later. Maybe after LA and people wanted to show their TdF chops with "euro"-speak.
scott s.
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scott s.
.
06-06-18, 11:46 PM
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I was in elementary school when Canada switched and learned both as a result. Over the years I've adopted metric for everything except temperature; my brain simply thinks in F (even though I know the basics in C).
Today I was describing the weather as being about 65 degrees to a 95 year old lady I was walking and she couldn't relate - She only thinks in Celsius! I couldn't convert for her. There was something very odd about that encounter.
Today I was describing the weather as being about 65 degrees to a 95 year old lady I was walking and she couldn't relate - She only thinks in Celsius! I couldn't convert for her. There was something very odd about that encounter.
06-06-18, 11:55 PM
#63
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I think it's what you're used to. 20C is a "standard" temperature for various processes, and I'm used to it. 15C for other things, and I'm used to it. But, when I'm thinking about those temps, I'm always mentally converting to 68F and 59F, cause that's what I've learned to understand.
06-07-18, 12:11 AM
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I think this is true for many people and is due to the 32F offset between the two temperature scales. I.e. it's not just a ratio but also a fixed offset. For most things we don't need the exact conversion so remembering that a meter is just a bit longer than a yard, that a mile is a little more than 1.5 km, or that a liter is barely more than a quart is sufficient to let us feel comfortable with both sets of units. But with temperatures you need to apply the 9/5 ratio but then also factor in the 32 degree offset to convert C to F and that makes it much less intuitive. My mother had the same comment in the opposite direction having grown up with the metric units before moving to the US. She felt that she always had to convert temperatures to degrees C before they made sense to her.
06-07-18, 05:44 AM
#65
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I first started hearing the term metric century in the late 70's/early 80's. I think its a leasure time related thing. In the 60's and 70's the youth movement...bike boom...economic boom, resulted in more leasure time. Riding a 100 mile century over a 10 hour period was a way to spend a saturday with other cyclists. Pay your $2.00 entry fee for an organized century ride...bring a couple Pbj's with you and enjoy the day.
Now the cycling crowd is older. Working 10 hour days. Commuting by car 2 hours day. A century ride entry fee is $100. And lets see how fast we can complete the 62 miles on our $5000 carbon fiber bikes...because my daughter has a soccer game at 2pm and the living room needs painting.
Now the cycling crowd is older. Working 10 hour days. Commuting by car 2 hours day. A century ride entry fee is $100. And lets see how fast we can complete the 62 miles on our $5000 carbon fiber bikes...because my daughter has a soccer game at 2pm and the living room needs painting.
06-07-18, 08:36 AM
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Now, from the POV of the real overwhelming majority of the population (unlike USA-only majority of the population), Fahrenheit temperature scale is completely meaningless and by far the most confusing part of USA measuring system. First of all, unlike any other measure, there is simply no easy way to convert C to F by just applying one multiplication, there is a whole conversion formula involved. Second, Celsius temperature scale is extremely intuitive and practical: 0 - water freezing point. Everything below 0 means freezing cold. And in practice it makes a big difference between ice, snow, exploded water pipes, frozen food vs just rain, cold water, cold food. And at 100 degrees water is boiling which is also a common event known to everyone. It is pretty easy to extrapolate between these two points (0 & 100) by everyday life experience.
Fahrenheit is meaningless. I can tell you right away that 20 degrees C is warm, or, at the very least, not too cold, without knowing very little about C. What is 20 in F? Who knows, zero in F is a temperature of "mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride" - how often do you deal with this mixture and what practical information it gives? Never and none - and this includes US folks as well. 100 degrees, AFAIR, was a body temperature of his feverish wife. How often do you meet with Fahrenheit's wife? Above 32 will be warm range, below 32 - frozen... Why?!! Why 32??? Crazy and broken by design system, dead everywhere in the world - except US.
Fahrenheit is meaningless. I can tell you right away that 20 degrees C is warm, or, at the very least, not too cold, without knowing very little about C. What is 20 in F? Who knows, zero in F is a temperature of "mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride" - how often do you deal with this mixture and what practical information it gives? Never and none - and this includes US folks as well. 100 degrees, AFAIR, was a body temperature of his feverish wife. How often do you meet with Fahrenheit's wife? Above 32 will be warm range, below 32 - frozen... Why?!! Why 32??? Crazy and broken by design system, dead everywhere in the world - except US.
06-07-18, 09:00 AM
#67
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Hah hah hah... don't know if you are serious or not but it would make a great amendment to the TOS, along with the right to bare your arms while doing a quarter metric century. Many don't know it but Fahrenheit 451 is a fact based account of what happens to a society when the corresponding C equivalent is not provided.
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06-07-18, 09:16 AM
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Hah hah hah... don't know if you are serious or not but it would make a great amendment to the TOS, along with the right to bare your arms while doing a quarter metric century. Many don't know it but Fahrenheit 451 is a fact based account of what happens to a society when the corresponding C equivalent is not provided.
I do think that the USA needs to step into the 20th century and start using the metric system like the rest of the world (we can work on the 21st century later). Hubris and tradition aren't valid reasons for refusing to adopt a system that is clearly better (and happens to be the universal standard).
However, people posting in Fahrenheit doesn't bug me. I get it, that's what people are used to. In the grand scheme of things, there are far, far larger issues to worry about.
06-07-18, 10:24 AM
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I do think that the USA needs to step into the 20th century and start using the metric system like the rest of the world (we can work on the 21st century later). Hubris and tradition aren't valid reasons for refusing to adopt a system that is clearly better (and happens to be the universal standard).
That's aided a lot by people quickly becoming familiar with the units they regularly need to use for a task, and tools that instantly toggle back and forth when needing to import or export information from a setting where the choice is made differently.
And there's a lot of national customization of consumer products that has nothing to do with measurement. Bought a pair of
06-07-18, 10:50 AM
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https://www.******.com/r/askscience/..._we_landed_on/
So NASA did use metric even back then. Too bad we can't seem to get the rest of our country to agree to use the metric system 49 years later. I think most schools/universities have taught science courses with metric for a few decades, no?
Edit: link to r e d d i t broken for some reason. Original article is here: https://www.doneyles.com/LM/Tales.html
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06-07-18, 10:55 AM
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In my view, imperial / metric has become a non-issue in most industries. Almost all designs are done in CAD programs that can display either units. Manufacturing equipment (machine tools) can switch between units with the flip of a switch. There are a few long-term standards that aren't worth revising, such as BB threads, because nothing but a BB needs to fit those threads. It's fun to debate about, and it's inconvenient that there are still two standards, but it has really ceased to be a major problem.
06-07-18, 10:56 AM
#73
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Make sure you capitalize "Calorie" correctly, because a "calorie" is a very different thing from a "Calorie". That minor salient detail only constitutes 3 order of magnitude of difference.
Of course there are also different definitions of calorie as well:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie#Definitions
Of course there are also different definitions of calorie as well:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie#Definitions
06-07-18, 11:05 AM
#75
